Amazon conservation agreement reached

04-07-2012 • http://lapress.org

Environment ministers from the eight countries whose territory includes part of the Amazon River basin — Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela — signed an agreement in Lima on March 21 to protect Amazon forest, its biodiversity and the land rights of indigenous peoples living there.

The government representatives of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, or ACTO, ratified the Strategic Agenda of Amazon Cooperation approved by the organization in November 2010, including plans to protect forests and biodiversity, guarantee territorial rights of indigenous and tribal communities and their traditional knowledge, and equitable access to water, among others.